Copyright is protection that the law gives to creative work being copied illegally by others.
As soon as you create a piece of creative work such as a painting, drawing, design, logo, graphic, text, animation, web site, music and video the piece of work is automatically covered by copyright. You do not have to register or do anything else.
When you produce work it is automatically copyrighted and other people should not use this work without your permission. If you wish to use other people’s copyrighted work you will need to check That you have their permission to use it of if the work is copyright free. Even if the work is copyright free, you may be subject to certain restrictions on how it can be used.
Here are some myths about copyright:
There is no copyright symbol, so it is ok to useWrong. As soon as a piece of work is produced it is copyrighted automatically with or without the copyright symbol.
I have acknowledged the source of the material so it is ok to copy itNot true. You still should ask permission.
It is on a website, so it is ok to copy itWrong. Someone has spent time and money producing the item you are copying. Copying it is wrong and illegal
You have to assume that no work is copyright free unless it specifically says so. Even then you need to check the conditions carefully.
Copyright material is sometimes marked with a © next to it or near it. If you stress that the material is copyright, it is a good idea to include this symbol in the following way:
© Author or owner of copyright. Date of publication
© Stephen Doyle. 2012
It is not a legal requirement to put the symbol in, because any original work is automatically given copyright.
If possible, it is often quicker to go out and take your own photographs because there are no copyright problems. You own the copyright on photographs you take yourself. There are cases where you would have to use other photographs taken by others. An example of this would be if you wanted a photograph of a distant landmark such as the Great Wall of China or someone famous such as the President of the USA. There are many photograph libraries on the Internet where you can obtain photographs and use them on your website for a small fee.
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